The development of wireless networking technologies has greatly improved the mobility of laptop and handheld computer users. Wireless networking capability continues to increase productivity in the workplace and convenience in the home. As wireless networks become ubiquitous, ease of configuration and optimization of bandwidth become necessities.
In today's wireless networks, an access point typically operates on a particular frequency and provides wireless network access for client devices, or stations. There are typically a fixed set of frequencies upon which access points may operate. When building a relatively large wireless network, for example to cover an enterprise class business, many access points may be needed to provide wireless coverage. However, the only currently available means of optimizing the placement of access points is by manual trial and error. Furthermore, manual configuration is currently the only means of choosing non-interfering frequencies on which several access points can operate. There is currently no means of optimizing the distribution of clients among access points so that client bandwidth is maximized. It is desirable to provide new mechanisms for configuring and optimizing wireless networks that overcome the aforementioned shortcomings of current wireless networks.